Ring Tone Text Transfer Language
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Ring Tone Text Transfer Language (RTTTL), also known as Nokring, was made by Nokia[source?] to allow ringtones to be moved to their cellphones.
Specifications
changeThis is an RTTTL ringtone. This one is named Haunted House:
HauntHouse: d=4,o=5,b=108: 2a4, 2e, 2d#, 2b4, 2a4, 2c, 2d, 2a#4, 2e., e, 1f4, 1a4, 1d#, 2e., d, 2c., b4, 1a4, 1p, 2a4, 2e, 2d#, 2b4, 2a4, 2c, 2d, 2a#4, 2e., e, 1f4, 1a4, 1d#, 2e., d, 2c., b4, 1a4
RTTTL has three parts, which are all separated by one colon each. All of them must be there.
- Part 1 - The name of the ringtone, then a comma. This ringtone's name is defined as "HauntHouse" because the name cannot normally be longer than 10 characters or have a colon ":" character. Smart Messaging allows names up to 15 characters in length, and some applications processing RTTTL also do that.
- Part 2 - The settings (here: d=4,o=5,b=108). "d=" says the default duration of a note is that much of a note. For example, "1" means a whole note, "2" means a half note and so on. "o=" says the default octave. "b=" says the tempo in beats per minute.
- Part 3 - The notes. Each note is separated by a comma and shown in this order: the duration, a standard music note (a, b, c, d, e, f or g), and an octave. The default is used if no duration or octave is defined.
RTTTL is defined in a similar way to Music Macro Language, which many early microcomputers have in their BASIC implementations.
Durations
changeThese standard musical durations can be used:
- 1 - whole note
- 2 - half note
- 4 - quarter note
- 8 - eighth note
- 16 - sixteenth note
- 32 - thirty-second note
Adding a period (".") character to the end of a note increases the length of the note by half, which can be used to make dotted rhythm patterns.
Pitch
changeThese pitches can be used:
- P - rest or pause
- A - A
- A# - A♯ / B♭
- B - B / C♭
- C - C
- C# - C♯ / D♭
- D - D
- D# - D♯ / E♭
- E - E / F♭
- F - F / E♯
- F# - F♯ / G♭
- G - G
- G# - G♯ / A♭
Octaves
changeRTTTL has 4 octaves, starting from the A below middle C and going up four octaves, because cellphones could not play some tones audibly at the time it was made. These octaves are numbered from lowest pitch to highest pitch from 4 to 7.
The octave should be left out of the note to prevent rests or pauses in the pattern.
References
change- How do I distinguish a Nokring/RTTTL ringtone from other ringtones? Archived 2007-12-13 at the Wayback Machine (Eric Bematchez, about.com)
- RTTTL specification document in Backus-Naur notation